Doncaster Sheffield Airport: More than 25,000 sign petitions

More than 25,000 people have signed petitions calling for Doncaster Sheffield Airport to be saved after its future was plunged into doubt.

Directors said the business "may no longer be commercially viable", citing issues including Covid and the impact of airline Wizz Air cancelling flights.

A six-week consultation into its future is set to begin, with the area's MP warning 800 jobs are on the line.

A meeting will be held later between local leaders to discuss the matter.

The site, which is part of Peel Group and opened as an international commercial airport in 2005, handles more than a million passengers annually and flies to 50 destinations.

At the 77-room Crown Hotel in Bawtry, five miles (8km) away from Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA), more than a quarter of beds are booked nightly by aircraft crew.

Craig Davie, from the hotel, said: "We've had TUI crews stay here for the last 20 years, since they opened the airport we've been the designated hotel for their operations.

"At this moment in time, we've got between 15 and 25 rooms booked in with them."

He continued: "You can hear an aeroplane going over the hotel as we speak, this would be the biggest downfall in Doncaster's history if anything was to happen to the airport."

Kath Doyle, a travel agent at Bawtry Travel in Doncaster, said a fifth of her bookings are for DSA flights.

"It has always been a bit of a problem to us as a company as in the main it's only TUI that operates from Doncaster - people expected that once it was up and running they'd have flights to everywhere," she said.

"After all the spending that's been done, getting the roads up to scratch, bringing in a new road from the motorway, bringing the infrastructure in."

The travel agent, who set up her business in Doncaster in 1982, said concerned customers have already been in touch about their future bookings.

"A client called in a panic because he's going away in September, he wanted to be reassured that he wasn't going to have his flights cancelled," she said.

"Others were horrified because they've got bookings for next year."

DSA passengers have been told to arrive and check in as usual and have been assured they would be contacted "in good time" should there be any flight disruption.

Regular passengers have been sharing their concerns on petitions to save the airport, with many referencing government efforts to "level up" the North being undermined by its potential loss.

Diane Haycock, from Doncaster, said: "No blame can be put to Covid as the airport had already lost other airlines prior to 2020, it begs to question why aren't EasyJet and Ryanair flying out of Doncaster?"

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, DSA was voted the UK's best airport by Which? magazine three years in a row between 2017-2019.

But recent analysis of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) data by the Press Association found it was sixth worst airport in the UK for flight delays in 2021, with planes taking off an average of 10 minutes late.

Mary Brennan, who lives next to the airport, said: "It would be such a tragedy for the airport to close - it's the best airport I have ever flown from and so convenient.

"Devastating news to say the least!"

Smaller UK airports are reliant on maintaining what the industry calls its "base carriers", or airlines with aircraft permanently based on site.

TUI is DSA's only remaining base carrier. Low-cost airline Wizz Air, which operates from the site, announced in June it was cancelling a number of routes from the airport.

Flights cancelled included those to popular summer holiday destinations including Lanzarote, Tenerife, Malaga and Palma.

The number of flights a small airport can provide is crucial to its survival, said Simon Calder at The Independent.

Mr Calder, the newspaper's travel editor, said: "Airports are all about scale, it costs a fortune to keep them running - firefighters, security staff, there's all sorts of people required - even if you only have one flight a day,"

"Therefore, airports with 100 flights a day are much more secure."

Another challenge for DSA is geography, with Leeds Bradford Airport, the much larger Manchester Airport and East Midlands Airport all within two hours' drive from Doncaster.

Mr Calder said: "It appears that the UK, particularly northern England, has too much aviation capacity, which is what we saw a few years ago when Blackpool Airport in the North West shut down."

Crucially, DSA and the Peel Group admit it has struggled to maintain a viable business.

In a statement released on Wednesday, it said it had "never achieved the critical mass required to become profitable".

Local leaders are now lobbying the government for action, with Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh asking Transport Secretary Grant Shapps "to do everything in his power" to save South Yorkshire's international airport.

South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard is meeting with leaders of the county's four local authorities to discuss the situation, adding: "I'll be speaking directly to government about the importance of our regional airport to the economic prospects of South Yorkshire."

Mr Calder said a plan to save the airport isn't impossible, but he feared the worst.

"We've seen Cardiff Airport airport, for instance, had the Welsh government throwing millions of pounds at it to keep it going, the same thing happened with Glasgow Prestwick Airport in Scotland," he said.

"Unfortunately I fear the local authorities may conclude that simply the world can do without Doncaster Sheffield, which would be a shame as it's an airport I'm very fond of."

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